I’ve often thought that cats appear to be very prominent at ports because they hop on boats and travel the world, like some sort of fable inspired story. The mention of blue eyed dogs rings a bell, when we’ve stayed there for any period we noted the presence of some albino animals; if I remember correctly, birds such as pigeons, totally white and pink eyed. 

Myths often have some degree of truth to them, ancient people must have seen things, that when recounted, others didn’t believe at first; but liked to tell the tales to others nonetheless!